Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,103

where an archangel of death reigns over the biggest territory on the planet. I do not know what awaits my son.

Raphael caught a wind, rode it. We can only live in the time into which we are born. As he’d been born at a time when two archangels, one old, one younger, struggled with the caress of madness.

A hint of a bruised darkness on the horizon, licked with flame. Neha had ordered flaming torches placed along the entire China-India border, as warning to her people not to cross.

Raphael, my friend! Titus’s mental voice was as much a thunderclap of sound as his physical voice.

Raphael looked to the left. Well met, Titus. The three of them flew on without further conversation. All the talk had been done and done again.

Antonicus had made his choice and today, they would see the outcome. Still, after landing atop the roof of the border fort, Raphael made his way to the Ancient and said, “You are resolved to do this even now that you see the darkness of what you face?”

“Yes, pup. I do not know how you do things, but I hold to my convictions.”

Those convictions had been set with little real information, Raphael thought. But all he said was, “So be it.” Antonicus was no youth; he was an Ancient and he was making this call while staring at what awaited.

“I have seen nightmares you can’t comprehend,” Antonicus added. “A jumped-up faux-goddess is no threat to me.”

Raphael gave a nod of acknowledgment before making his way to an angel with wings of pristine white. “Eli, you have beaten me here.” He and the Archangel of South America had planned to fly together, keeping company on the long journey, but then a quake had hit Elijah’s territory, and he’d had to remain behind for half a day to deal with it. When Raphael offered to assist, Elijah had told him to go ahead as Raphael intended to stop in at Amanat to speak to Caliane.

“I was lucky, my friend. My work was done within two hours, not half a day. Then I was able to catch wind currents so strong I feared a cyclone was building. I looked for you in the sky as I flew but you must’ve been far distant.” Eli scanned the rooftop. “Lady Caliane?”

“She broke away to go to Neha’s palace atop the hill.” His mother had wished to have a private conversation with the Archangel of India. “I see her now.”

“Neha flies with her.”

Several others arrived at that instant. Including Aegaeon. “I hear my son is part of your court, Raphael,” he said, his feathers a deep sea green that flowed into blue and his face a harder, craggier version of Illium’s—no one would’ve accused the Hummingbird of deceit had her son been full grown when Aegaeon disappeared into Sleep.

That he was Illium’s progenitor was impossible to miss.

“Illium is one of my Seven.” Raphael forced himself to be civil; if there was to be a confrontation, it belonged to Illium.

“Wild still is he?” Aegaeon’s eyes gleamed with laughing pride. “Always playing tricks, my son.”

“You will excuse me. I must greet my mother.” Raphael had to get away from the angel before he punched him. Not many people aroused such primal anger in Raphael, but Aegaeon stood in first place.

Both for what he’d done to the Hummingbird, and what he’d done to Illium. As if they had no more importance to him than any other angel in his harem. Raphael would never forget finding the Hummingbird’s mischievous, laughing boy curled up in a heap behind a tumble of rocks, crying in heartbroken silence. Aegaeon had left without warning, with no care for the small heart that worshipped him.

He came to a stop near where Caliane and Neha had landed. “Mother. Neha.”

Neha gave a nod of acknowledgment, but her eyes were on the fog. “Do you feel it?”

“Yes.” A heavy sense of oppression, a near-physical touch. “Is it causing weather changes in your territory?”

“My weather scientists say it has to do with how the fog is disrupting the ground to sky flow in Lijuan’s land.” Dressed in the faded leathers of a warrior, she spoke to Raphael without anger, her only focus the dark fog. She didn’t seem aware of the thin snake wrapped around her left wrist, a living bracelet in tones of dark orange and copper.

Caliane was dressed much the same except that her hair was out while Neha had braided her own. The three of them moved to